Identification of α-glucosidase inhibitors from Mulberry using UF-UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS and molecular docking.

As a medicinal and edible plant, Mulberry has shown good hypoglycaemic activity at the animal level, but its active ingredients and hypoglycaemic mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we used ultrafiltration-ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (UF-UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) and molecular docking to screen for high-affinity α-glucosidase inhibitors in Mulberry. Our innovation was to determine the inhibitory activity of Mulberry extracts in vitro and screen the active small molecules in the extracts using advanced UF-UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS techniques and validate these compounds at the molecular docking and cellular levels, laying the foundation for studying the mechanism of type 2 diabetes in Mulberry. α-Glucosidase incubation experiments showed that the IC₅₀ value of Mulberry crude extracts was 37.58 μg/mL. Six possible α-glucosidase activity inhibitory components were identified using UF-UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. Molecular docking studies showed that these small molecules were more likely to occupy the active site of α-glucosidase than the positive control acarbose, scoring above the...